January 30, 2008

U.S. Gets Top Ranking on Tech ‘Scorecard’

The United States topped a new list that sought to rank how well countries use information and communication technologies such as cell phones and computers to boost their economic prosperity.

London Business School professor Leonard Waverman published Connectivity Scorecard on Wednesday. Reuters reported that the study looked at 30 indicators including usage of communications technology.

The study indicates that there is still room for improvement. The United States received the top ranking because of its increased investment in information and communication technologies (ICT), but the U.S. still experiences weak usage of vast broadband networks.

Professor Ilkka Lakaniemi, head of global political dialogue at Nokia Siemens Networks commissioned the study. He told Reuters that South Korea, who usually ranks high in similar studies based on heavy public investment, fell to middle rankings because of the country's lower usage of technology, especially by corporations.

"You have a lot of consumer applications, you have a lot of entertainment applications, a lot of this and that, but they do not really add much to productivity," Lakaniemi said.

Russia found its way to the list of developing countries, surpassing China as well as India.

"It will be interesting to see how in the next 10 years Russia will go down on this list and India up. You have an older population in Russia and a better-educated, younger workforce in India," Lakaniemi said.

Following are the ratings for "innovation driven economies" measured in the study, scale 1-10.